Costs are killings us

Dec 28, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyanese taxpayers are choking on costs today, with prices soaring on just about every item. At the rate that costs are exploding, Guyanese are suffering from more than a spasm of choking. Costs are killing us, with what has to be spent to get what is needed. It is true also for what is pushed on us, whether we agree with it or not.

We focus not on the high cost of living today, but on the steeply increasing price tag of the Wales Gas to Shore project (GTE). What was recently presented by the PPPC Government to be US$900M is now estimated to be over US$2B. At this time, the final figure for the GTE is unknown, and it could be still more than the US$2B amount making the rounds. This is because it is the PPPC Government that is leading the way with this project, and it is known for endless brazen financial skullduggeries whenever projects of these types are involved.

By ExxonMobil’s own estimate, the offshore pipeline, which it is constructing is expected to cost around US$1.3B, which is ‘conservative’. Meaning, that it is on the lower side, just to be safe, and not to have given the wrong impression, should the final cost of the offshore pipeline need to be increased, which looks more and more likely. By now, Guyanese have learned not to place too much confidence in the trustworthiness of ExxonMobil where their oil is concerned, and millions of dollars are at stake. They almost always end up getting the wrong end of the stick.

Now, a contract was signed between Guyana and CH4/LINDSAYCA, another American entity, for US$759M for the other two huge aspects of the entire GTE project, which are the power plant and the Natural Gas Liquids facility. Using the currently available figures (Exxon’s and CH4/LINDSAYCA), Guyanese are now staring at US$2.059B, and not the earlier approximation of US$900M that officials of the PPPC Government were touting. It is either that the government and its senior people don’t know what is going on with the GTE project, or they are up to their usual tricks. Considering the steep increase in the GTE price tag, we believe that it is a combination of the two.

More than double than what the citizens of this nation was told, and they still don’t know what they are getting. That is, if it is going to mean definitely cheaper electricity at a significantly reduced rate, and what the new price for the GTE is going to mean for the operations of the GPL, Inc. To saddle the people of a poor nation with what could be a US$2B Ponzi scheme is not just appallingly callous, but totally lacking in conscience by anyone who first dangles an urgently needed product (cheap electricity) before an energy thirsty people, only for it to be discovered later that they were being led on a string by a cunning and manipulative government. The US$2B total for the GTE means that every Guyanese is going to be responsible for US$2500 more in debt, or a hard half million Guyana dollars. From every indication, this GTE looks more and more like a crime of unparalleled proportions, the shenanigans of scheming politicians and their henchmen working their magic with foreign exploiters.

Bharat Jagdeo, Guyana’s oil czar, explained that “simulations” were done under varying scenarios, and that the GTE will deliver the promised cheaper and reliable electricity. It is likely that he is talking about price simulations and different market conditions, and not factoring in the more than 100% price for the GTE. This puts the PPPC Government’s insistence of 50% cheaper electricity to Guyanese under severe pressure, and makes it look most unpromising, if not suspicious.

Even from now, this secrecy-riddled GTE registers as another political crime along the lines of what took place with the rich Stabroek Block, and its billions of barrels of oil. What the Coalition APNU+AFC agreed to with ExxonMobil in the form of the 2016 oil contract, the PPPC Government of today is doing something similar with US$2B and counting GTE project at Wales. The foreigners don’t have to exploit and deceive us, our own governments do so.